The Vatican on Thursday moved to quell opposition to Pope Francis’ approval for Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples in response strong resistance from some bishops’ conferences, mostly in Africa.
The Vatican’s statement clarifying the pope’s controversial declaration last month acknowledged the dissenting bishops’ concerns by assuring them that the move was not “heretical” or “blasphemous” to the Catholic Church’s doctrines on marriage and sexuality.
The statement from the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, also holds that the blessings for same-sex couples should not be perceived as “a justification of all their actions and they are not an endorsement of the life that they lead.”
The five-page statement that Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, who is an advisor to Francis, signed further notes “if there are laws that condemn the mere act of declaring oneself as homosexual with prison and in some cases with torture and even death, it goes without saying that a blessing would be imprudent.”
The Vatican observed that Catholic bishops from such homophobic environments “do not wish to expose homosexual persons to violence” and urged “pastoral prudence” to navigate punitive local laws and situations in administering simple, short blessings to same-sex partners, but not as church rituals or resemble a wedding.
Despite this clarification on Catholic priests blessing people in same-sex relationships, the dissenting African bishops’ conferences have vowed to stick to the church’s old, Biblical order that recognizes marriage between a man and a woman, and homosexuality as a sin.
The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops through a statement maintains that they do not bless people for what it asserts are immoral actions in which they engage. The KCCB said it hopes the blessings and prayers offered to them as human beings would provoke them to return to God’s ways.
“The work of the church is to gather the scattered, recover the lost and redirect all sinners back to the fount of salvation and eternal life and that is Jesus Christ our savior,” said Rev. Martin Kiviva, who chairs the KCCB. “No blessing can be understood outside the context of God’s will and the salvation and invitation to Communion with God.”
The Nairobi Archbishop Philip Anyolo concurred with Kivuva and prohibited priests in Kenya’s capital from blessing “irregular relationships, unions or same-sex couples.”
“Any form of blessing of same-sex unions and activities would go against God’s word, the teachings of the church, the African cultural traditions, the laws of our nations and would be scandalous to the faithful,” Anyolo stated.
Catholic Bishops in Tanzania, where homosexuality is prohibited under the law with prison terms just like in Kenya, have also opposed the blessing of same-sex partners.
Bishop Flavian Kassala, vice chair of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference, on Dec. 25 dismissed the existence of same-sex unions which he termed as “dirty” and contravenes God’s covenant on marriage and procreation. He vowed that he would rather bless a “stone” for his faithful to construct a house with than blessing same-sex couples.
Uganda’s Episcopal Conference, which Bishop Anthony Zziwa chairs, on Dec. 25 weighed in Vatican’s declaration by stating that his country criminalizes homosexuality and affirmed that blessing same-sex couples would be breaking the law.
“Culturally, same-sex marriage has no room in Uganda and Africa,” Zziwa said at a press briefing. “The purpose of marriage is to have children. People of the same sex can’t get married and fulfill this purpose as stated in the book of Genesis.”
The East African clerics’ position on Francis’ pronouncement also received Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye’s backing. The staunch Catholic on Dec. 30 criticized same-sex unions as “abominable practice” and that gay couples should be publicly stoned.
Other Catholic bishops’ conferences in Africa that have opposed the Vatican’s declaration for priests to bless same-sex couples include those in Rwanda, Zambia, Nigeria, Malawi, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Angola.
The Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops noted that same-sex unions and activities are illegal in the country and that the blessing of gay couples cannot be implemented there.
“The conference would like to earnestly invite all those involved in same-sex unions to embark on the path of conversion with greater trust in God’s mercy and love; God whose ‘eyes are drawn to the person of humbled and contrite spirit,’” Archbishop Ignatius Chama, who is the ZCCB’s president, said in a statement that other clerics signed.
Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, meanwhile, also held that it is impossible to bless same-sex unions and acts as it goes against God’s law, the church’s teachings, Nigeria’s laws and the cultural sensibilities of citizens.
